Religious Worlds: The Comparative Study of Religion

by William E. Paden

From Gods, to ritual observance to the language of myth and the distinction between the sacred and the profane, Religious Worlds explores the structures common to all spiritual traditions.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Academic

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1994

Reviews

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read with plenty of room for further exploration. At times the language was overly verbose and tedious and some of the references were dated (lots about the Soviet Union) but overall this was a nice introduction to the study of comparative religion. The chapters analyzing myth and ritual were particularly well done and I plan on referencing them in the future.

[Sarah (TheLibrarysKeeper) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paden's book is designed with people who enjoy studying religions or religious texts in mind. I personally was reading this book for my Introduction to Major Religious Texts class. Regardless, it is helpful in teaching those that know how to study religions a new approach or those who have no experience what so ever how to read texts.

The first part of the book is really one big overview of information that may or may not help the reader. The later half is where we are introduced to the comparative techniques of Paden for the first time. I honestly had a few problems with his comparison techniques, but this was really only due to the fact that I found it repetitive and kind of contradictory in sense. I liked his comparison categories though and there was a lot of valuable information in these following chapters that will definitely help me for times to come.

[Corey Wozniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read preface(s), intro, chapters 1-4, 6 as part of coursework for “Religious Worlds of New York: Teaching the Everyday Life of American Religious Diversity” @ Union Theological Seminary, Summer ‘22

Clifford Geertz: “To see ourselves as others see us can be eye-opening. To see others as sharing a nature with ourselves is the merest decency. But it is from the far more difficult achievement of seeing ourselves amongst others, as a local example of the forms human life has locally taken, a case among cases, a world among words, that largeness of mind, without which objectivity is self-congratulation and tolerance a sham, comes.”

Paden: “Our own world, instead of being taken for granted, becomes exposed *as* a world, its contents get held up to the comparative mirror, and we become a phenomenon unto ourselves” (165).

[DW Rowlands · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it's really a bit short and basic for its topics, I found this to be a good introduction to comparative religion and, specifically, to what the common traits of religion seem to be. It's definitely outdated, in that it regularly references the Soviet Union in the present tense, but for this field I'm not sure a few decades makes much of a difference.

[Lauren Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting account of not only many different religions, but also how to compare them without any sort of bias using what Paden calls "understanding." The first three chapters go into these theories in detail and are very scientific, but the rest of the book shares in detail about the variations between these religious worlds (myths, gods, rituals, etc). Don't read if you want to learn about how different religions came to be - it's touched upon here but not greatly. It's more about how to study religion itself. Definitely interesting, and worth it if you want to learn how to become a more objective learner.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Paden's book could use a little updating -- references to the Soviet Union, for example, really need to be in the past tense at this point -- but overall "Religious Worlds" is a well-written, insightful framework for the comparative study of religions from around the world. It'd be hard to imagine reading this book outside an academic setting, but for what's essentially a textbook, it's a good one.